Independent, Stampin' Up! Demonstrator

01/20/2017

Sale-A-Brate good times, come on!! What are the odds of that song being in your head for the rest of the day!? Thank you for stopping by for the Creative Inking Blog Hop for January. Our theme for this month? You guessed it! All the amazingly wonderful goodness you can receive from Stampin' Up! FREE, that's right, FREE, for placing a $50 order through me! Awesome, right? I know! I picked the gorgeous stamp set Avant Garden (143272) on page 5 in the Sale-A-Bration catalog. It's such a sweet little set. I decided to do some watercoloring with our new watercolor pencils which are the bomb! They go on like butter! So delicious! Very easy to use. Here is the card I came up with....

I did some embossing on my background with some Versa Mark and white embossing powder. I then used my water color pencil in Bermuda Bay to scribble all around the paper. Then used my Aqua Painter to swoosh the water around to give me this dreamy background. I used Bermuda Bay and Pear Pizazz to ink pads to color my image. I used a few Enamal Shapes and White Organza Ribbon to fancy up my card. Here is a look at the inside...

I stamped off once so the image is softer and I stamped the sentiment over it. Easy and effective. I hope you like my card! Any questions, please let me know. Have fun on the rest of the hop! You can use the links below to go on. Make something pretty!

11/20/2016

Hello! Welcome to the November Creative Inking Blog Hop! Our theme for this month is Handmade Holiday. I love to give handmade cards to my friends and family for the holidays. I like to think of what that person likes or collects and I try to incorporate that into my gift making/giving. I thought I would make a set of cards for my Auntie Jenny to go along with a gift certificate to her favorite restaurant. She is truly an inspiration to our family. She is 92 years young, she still drives and lives alone. She is an awesome cook, baker and crafter. She has taught me quite a bit in my lifetime. She loves cats, so I made her a few cards in a clever card holder. I saw this card holder on You Tube by demonstrator Rachel Tessman. Her video was very easy to follow.

I stayed with just one layer cards. I used the note cards with matching envelopes that fit perfectly in the card holder. I used Sweet Sugarplum, Smoky Slate, Blushing Bride and Pear Pizazz to add a touch of color with my Aqua Painter.

For a finishing touch, I added Wink Of Stella and a butterfly punched with Dazzling Diamonds glitter paper.

The sentiments that come in this set are so cute and are perfect to send someone a smile. I stamped the greetings in Versa Mark ink and used Whisper White embossing powder. Easy, quick and oh so cute!

I hope you enjoyed my cute gift! Please click on the links below to go forward to back in the blog hop. Thanks for stopping by!

10/20/2016

Welcome, Friends, to the October 2016 Creative Inking Bloghop! Our theme for this month is thankfulness. Every Thanksgiving, I try to send cards to friends and family to let them know how much they mean to my family and I and how thankful we are to have them in our lives. I wanted to try something I have never done before. I decided to do a One Sheet Wonder. I have been stamping for over 20 years and I have never done one! I know, crazy, right!? I didn't know what I was missing! I loved designing my own printed paper and then coming up with card layouts. It was awesome! I wasn't sure how to cut the paper after designing it. I looked online and discovered that a fellow demonstrator, Michelle Last, had the dimensions for cutting in a tutorial on her blog. It was a great help!

I decided to use Vintage Leaves from the annual catalog. I just love the simplicity of this set. The colors I chose were Delightful Dijon, Rich Razzleberry, Cajun Craze and Mint Macaron. I chose these colors to work with the grosgrain ribbon in the holiday catalog.

Here's a close up of each of my cards:

I also added some gold embossing to the sentiment to give the cards a fancy feel!This was soooo much fun! I had the best time! I hope you like my cards. Please follow the links below to see the rest of the hop. I'm also thankful to you for stopping by!

09/25/2016

Hi there! Thanks so much for stopping by! I wanted to share the card I made for family friends who recently became grandparents to a beautiful bouncing baby boy! I wanted to make a special card for them.

I used the set Made with Love. The colors used were Pool Party, Daffodil Delight, Island Indigo and Cucumber Crush. I watercolored the images with reinkers and the Aquapainter. I used a wash of Soft Sky for the background. I embossed the background cardstocks with the Lucky Star embossing folder. The finishing touch? Coloring over the stars with Wink of Stella, of course!

I hope you like my card! It was fun to make! Thanks so much for stopping by!

09/20/2016

Welcome, Friends, to the September 2016 Creative Inking Blog Hop! This month's theme is Spooky Fun! It's here- crisp weather, turning leaves, apple cider and Halloween! I had the best time whipping up these tiny gift bags with some fun size candy bars inside for my husband, daughter and daughter's boyfriend.

When I first saw the stamp set, Cookie Cutter Halloween, I thought is was adorable. I had to get it along with the coordinating punch! Too cute! I'm embarressed to say that I've had the Gift Bag Punch Board in my possession for quite some time. I decided to give it a try and it was very easy to use!

This first bag is for my girl. I used the mummy image along with Pumpkin Pie Glimmer Paper and Halloween Night DSP. Ofcourse, I had to add the orange glimmer bow! I then colored her in with Wink of Stella!

This next one is for my guy. I used the "Eddy Munster" image. He is just he cutest! He is complete with a snazzy orange glitter bow tie!

Last, but not least, is the adorbs skeleton! All fancy with his Wink of Stella sparkly bones and orange glitter heart.

I hope you like the projects I've shared! They were a lot of fun to make! Visit my online store to order any of these fun products! Boo!

07/20/2016

Hello Friends! Welcome to the July installment of the Creative Inking Blog Hop! This month's theme is a fun one! Projects made using the beloved Big Shot! I'm not sure about you, but I can't make a card without mine! I am either using my Framelits or my embossing folders to give my project that extra pop!

I made a shaker card using Every Day Jars Framelits (141400) along with the matching photopolymer stamps called Jar of Love (141587). I LOVE this set! It can be used to make so many cool things. The possibilities are endless!

I made my own background paper using the stamps from this set and my new favorite colors together Pink Flamingo and Peekaboo Peach. Such bright pretty colors! I used the new 3/8" Ruched Ribbon to add some fanciness to my card front. To say this ribbon is delicious is an understatement! It ties the most perfect bows!

Using my Big Shot and the Framelits make lining up my mason jar image with the inside of the card effortless. I would have NEVER been able to do this without the use of this amazing tool!

I love the way this turned out!

Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope you like my project! Please click the images below to go forward to Colleen's awesome project or click prior to visit Amber's lovely project. Have a wonderful day!

06/20/2016

Hello Friends! So glad you could join us for the June 2016 Creative Inking Blog Hop! Our theme for this month is Showing Off the Pretties. We picked our favorite items from the new Stampin' Up! 2016-2017 catalog! That was a tough one! I LOVE everything in the new catalog! So many cool and pretty things! I finally decided to showcase a stamp set that I loved from the first time I saw it! It's called Bella and Friends (141870). This set was inspired by Angie Juda, a $1 million achiever with Stampin' Up! Her dog's name is Bella.

I made these two cards for loved ones in a nursing home recovering from a car accident. I tried to make one feminine and the other more masculine. I love to watercolor. So I used my Aqua Painter along with my ink pads in Calypso Coral, Smoky Slate and Pool Party. These colors are so pretty together.

05/17/2016

Welcome to the May 2016 installment of our Creative Inking Blog Hop! Hope you are enjoying all the awesome talent and beautiful projects this month! Our theme is Saying Goodbye. It's hard to say goodbye when you love everything Stampin Up! creates, but the new catalog is the bomb! Lots and lots of new stuff to create with. It was such a hard decision to pick what I would miss most. I finally decided that I will miss all the luscious Designer Series Paper that is retiring to make room for new. I wanted to make something to hang on my office door. I picked Farmers Market Designers Series Paper (138448). I picked out three patterns that I thought complimented each other. I love anything and anything gingham so the Blackberry Bliss and Mossy Meadow gingham prints were a must to use. The delicate print using Hello Honey was the third print I picked. I cut each piece to measure 6" by 3/4". I also picked up a 6" Styrofoam wreath.

I then used my SNAIL to adhere each piece to the wreath overlapping the pieces just a bit to cover the wreath.

I then dove tailed all the strip ends to make it look a little more feminine.

Lastly, I used my Fun Flower Punch (133785) to punch out three flowers in Blackberry Bliss cardstock (133675).

I love the way it came out! It adds a touch of sunshine to my office door. I will miss this DSP, but I still get to enjoy looking at it everyday! Thanks for stopping by! You can click the links below to either go forward to Colleen's blog or backwards to check out Amber's blog.

Click on the shop icons to the right if you would like to purchase anything before it retires!

04/19/2016

Welcome friends, to the April Creative Inking Blog Hop! Our theme this month is Springing into Flowers! My favorite card to make for someone, no matter the occasion, is a card with flowers incorporated in some way. I have been doing a technique that I call "messy water coloring." I use three ink colors. In this case, I used Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight and Tangerine Tango. I wet my water color paper with a paint brush making sure it is drenched with plain water. I then start to use my inkpads to place color with my brush all over the paper until it is covered.

As you can see, it's messy! It's so nice to just add color and not worry about coloring in lines! I then punched out the flowers and curled the petals up a little to add dimension. I used my paintbrush to splatter more of the colors used to add some dimension to the plain Whisper White paper. I placed the flowers on the card in a pleasing fashion. Then I added some Perfect Pearls and Wink of Stella. I stamped the sentiment and added a small layer of Basic Black paper. My card is complete!

I hope you enjoyed my project this month! Click the links below to go forward or back to see some amazing projects!

03/19/2016

Hello, Friends! Welcome to the March installment of our Creative Inking Blog Hop! This month is all about birthdays. I make more birthday cards than any other occasion it seems. I give out loads of kids cards because we have a huge extended family with lots of little ones. I wanted to do something different this time around. If you're a hoarder, I mean collector, of bakers twine, you might like this project! I buy lots of twine and it looks pretty in the clear jar I store it in, but I forget to use it! After stalking some ideas on Pinterest, I thought I'd try to make a colorful lollipop with the twine. I punched a 2" circle with my circle punch. Then I made a small knot at the end of the twine. Put some Fuse on the circle and just started to wind around and around from the middle of the circle out. Kind of tedious, but therapeutic at the same time. The color I used is Bermuda Bay thick bakers twine. I lastly punched a Melon Mambo heart from the Itty Bitty Punch Pack. Tied a Melon Mambo bow. Attached a real lollipop stick I had in my stash, and viola!

Then I wanted a black and white background to ground my lolli on. I decided to make my own with Whisper White cardstock along with Basic Black cut in 3/4" strips. I added Birthday Girl from the Sale A Bration Hello set. Stamped in Bermuda Bay.

I hope you like my project this month! Hop on over to the next blog for some birthday goodness!